City gave passport to Mumbai blast suspect

BANGALORE/HYDERABAD: A man with links to Hyderabad was detained at the Bangalore airport on Monday night on suspicion of involvement in the twin blasts in Mumbai on August 25.
The Intelligence Bureau and the Bangalore police interrogated Mohammed Usman on Tuesday and found that he was travelling with a fake passport issued by the Hyderabad passport office under the name Mohammed Fahim.
"His involvement in the Mumbai twin blasts is yet to be ascertained and we are waiting for the Mumbai police to arrive here on Wednesday and confirm this," a police officer said.
Usman was stopped at the immigration counter as he was proceeding to board a flight to Dubai at the Bangalore airport late on Monday.
Usman told his interrogators that he is an electrician working in Dubai.
"He came to Mumbai on August 18 and did not go to his native place Hyderabad where his parents and relatives live. He stayed in Mumbai till August 27 and was there on the day of the blasts. After the blasts, he wanted to return to Dubai, but could not get a confirmed ticket," said a police officer.
So he took a bus to Bangalore on August 29. He checked into a lodge in Gandhinagar and bought a ticket to Dubai by a flight scheduled to leave after midnight on Monday.
Police sources in Hyderabad said Usman aka Fahim was an accused in the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai, but turned approver.
In 1997, he reportedly obtained a passport in Hyderabad posing as Mohammad Fahim and claiming to be a resident of Chandrayangutta.
The Hyderabad police suspect that Usman is not a Hyderabadi but a Maharashtrian based in Mumbai.